Joe Doherty

I am a nature photographer, a bankruptcy scholar, a baseball player, and a husband and father. Not necessarily in that order. I began my professional photography career at 16, making environmental portraits for the Loyola High School development office. After high school I worked in a color lab making prints and dupes, then spent several years assisting photographers in Los Angeles. I opened my own studio in the mid-1980s, and photographed a wide range of subjects, from natural disasters to Hollywood actors. My work appeared in Time, People, Paris Match, and Geo (among other publications). The birth of my son led to a career change. I earned a PhD (Political Science) from UCLA, and joined the UCLA School of Law in 1999, running a research center and teaching statistics to future lawyers. Eventually - inevitably - I returned to photography. The artists who influence me vary widely, from Ansel Adams to Pete Turner, and from the Lascaux Cave to the Hudson River School. I choose among them to capture what I find inspiring in nature, to capture the many emotions that nature inspires in me: joy, peace, awe, apprehension, sadness, curiosity. In my work I try to convey those emotions, while connecting the image to a specific place. I want people who view my work to develop an emotional connection to that place, too. I think it is only by making that connection that people will develop the sense that nature is worth preserving for its own sake.